Wide Area Network (WAN) connections are used by many applications, including for example, TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) based business critical applications, productivity tools, conference systems, video applications, and other non-business applications. Cloud computing and information technology outsourcing drive the demand for more bandwidth while video consumes a significant percentage of bandwidth. Optimizing the wide area network can accelerate application performance and increase throughput levels. Conventional WAN optimization involves complex, fragmented, and hard to maintain components. The optimization components are installed on multiple devices which need to be deployed and designed into the network, and do not address UDP-based real-time application optimization.
Corresponding reference characters indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views of the drawings.